Coaches’ poll shows lot more love to UK than SEC Media Day voters did

Lynn Bowden and UK were ranked 31st in the first Coaches Poll. (Photo by Elliott Hess | UK Athletics)

By LARRY VAUGHT

Kentucky got little respect from the media when it was picked to finish sixth in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division at the recent SEC Media Days.

For UK coaches, players and fans that lack of respect for last year’s 10-3 record or three straight bowl seasons was not really a surprise and has just played into extra motivation for the Cats going into this season.

However, the Cats are going to have to admit that they did get some “love” in the first Coaches Poll released this week. No surprise that Clemson was No. 1. No surprise that Kentucky was not in the top 25 after losing Josh Allen, Benny Snell Jr. and its entire secondary from last season

The coaches did not ignore UK, though. Kentucky was 31st in the preseason poll.

Maybe that doesn’t seem impressive but only two SEC East teams — No. 3 Georgia (who can argue with that) and No. 8 Florida (still seems too high to me) — were picked ahead of UK.

South Carolina was 42nd. Tennessee got one vote. Missouri did not get a vote. All three teams were picked to finish ahead of UK at SEC Media Days. Throw in Vanderbilt and the college football coaches, who one would think should know more about the best teams, picked Kentucky to finish in front of four SEC Eastern Division teams.

Can Terry Wilson take the next step in decision making/passing and will Gran let him? Will our run game pick up where Snell No left off? How long will it take our secondary to come together as a unit? There are a lot of moving parts on this team that will need to be coached up for us to even be bowl eligible. This season will show us just how good or not so good our coaching staff really is. I hope they will rise to the occasion, but I fear that Eddy Gran will become a heavy load for the rest of the staff to carry by season’s end.